Senate, House Approve Bond Package

HARTFORD — The state Senate and House both voted Tuesday night to approve a bond package that spends more than $1 billion on various projects, including $105 million over 10 years as the state tries to reach universal pre-kindergarten access for young students.

The Senate voted 30-6, with all six negative votes from Republicans, including minority leader John McKinney of Fairfield. The other eight members of the Republican caucus voted in favor shortly after 8:30 p.m. during another marathon day at the Capitol as legislators rushed toward adjournment at midnight Wednesday.

About three hours later, the House voted 136-8, with 8 Republicans voting against the package, including Rep. Penny Bacchiochi, a candidate for lieutenant governor.

The initial Senatedebate of 17 minutes Tuesday on the main amendment to the annual bond package was far shorter than more than five hours that the Senate spent debating fracking waste on Monday during a Republican filibuster.

"This bill makes a number of investments on the capital side, in order to improve the quality of our state, making us more competitive," said Sen. John Fonfara, a Hartford Democrat.

Fonfara, who co-chairs the powerful finance committee, called the bond package "a bipartisan document" that reflects the priorities of the legislature and Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

The package includes $100 million for the Manufacturing Assistance Act, $60 million for road repairs in various towns, $50 million for public drinking-water projects annually over 10 years, $30 million for the Connecticut Manufacturing Innovation Fund, and more than $15 million for land purchases, construction and repairs at fire training schools.

The bill also calls for $10 million for nonprofit groups for historic and cultural sites, $10 million for subsidized training and employment through the state labor department, and nearly $10 million for computers, classroom furniture and portable classrooms at magnet schools as part of the settlement of the Sheff vs. O'Neill school desegregation lawsuit. The bill includes $10 million for local bridges and $3 million to reconstruct an off-ramp on the Merritt Parkway in Westport.

In addition to some big-ticket items, the bipartisan package contains smaller-scale proposals as well, such as a proposal to spend $2.2 million to establish a statewide platform for the distribution of electronic books.

After numerous speeches and press conferences about the state's Stem Cell Research Fund, created under then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell, the bill eliminates that name. Newly renamed the Regenerative Medicine Research Fund, it will be expanded to allow grants to be made for regenerative medicine research. The fund also is being transferred from the Department of Public Health to Connecticut Innovations Inc., the state's quasi-public investment authority.

The bonding package "touches on so many parts of not just government but improving the quality of life here in the state of Connecticut,'' said Sen. Andrea Stillman, a Waterford Democrat who is not seeking re-election this fall.

But Sen. L. Scott Frantz, a Greenwich Republican who serves on the committee that oversees bonding, said he was concerned that the package has grown too large for a small state to afford.

"We're going to shoulder the next generation with way too much debt,'' Frantz said. "It's getting to be to the point where it's going to be very difficult to service this debt. Before hitting the green button or the red button, I would want everybody to pause and think about what we are doing to the next generation.''

Frantz said that many of the projects are worthy, "but there is a pricetag at which we cannot do it because we're not growing fast enough as a state.''

Sen. Rob Kane, the ranking Republican senator on the budget-writing committee, questioned allocating $3.3 million to the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network for production, transmission, broadcasting and computer equipment.

"I don't want to get into the whole fight that Mitt Romney got into with 'Sesame Street,''' Kane said Tuesday. "I guess that's in the past.''

Concerning the size of the bill, Kane said, "Certainly, there's a lot to digest in this package.''

Sen. Jason Welch, a Bristol Republican who is retiring after this session and who supported the package, said, "I always have to take a breath and pause with the bond package because the numbers are large.''

The Senate also unanimously approved the annual school construction bill, which this coming year provides $180 million for 21 new school construction projects, including those in West Hartford, Wethersfield, New Britain, Torrington, Danbury, and Fairfield.

The state will reimburse towns on a sliding scale from about 25 percent to 80 percent for the various projects. The bill's overall cost is $309 million, including changes in previously authorized projects in Berlin, New Haven and Weston, among others.